John 1:43-51
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
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I love Philip, he is such a fibber. He is so amazing human in what he tells Nathaniel. Misguided or not, he attempts to take credit for something that God does. How often do we sit back and think of all the good things that we have done, imagining that it is by our own strength that they have been done, forgetting that all of our talents and our skills are given to us by our Almighty God? Here is Philip proclaiming to Nathanael, “We have found him whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” “We have found him.”
But Philip didn’t find Jesus at all. Instead Jesus found Philip and told him to follow. Philip kinda reminds me of the kid from the Shake and Bake commercials, “It’s Shake and Bake, and I helped!” Jesus found Philip, just as Jesus has found each of us here today and finds people all over the world. It is not by our doing that God has come into our lives, we didn’t go door to door trying to find the right person to follow, he wasn’t playing Hide and Go Seek, waiting behind a chair for us to go and get him. Jesus goes out and finds Philip and tells him to “follow.” And Jesus finds us and tells us to “follow.” But what does it mean to follow? What is God’s mission for us as Christians? For one, it would be to give glory to God. In the end, Philip is not glorified for finding Christ, but rather Jesus is glorified for being who he is, the Messiah, the Son of God. True, Jesus’ actions in today’s reading don’t seem all that wondrous. Al he says is that he saw Nathaniel sitting under a tree. For all we know, Jesus was walking along with Philip, saw a guy sitting under a tree, asked Philip if he knew the guy, then told him to go and get him. Yet Nathaniel sees this as a sign of Jesus being the Messiah. Nathaniel seems to be pretty easy to please and to make believe… there is a wonderment about him, which is something that perhaps we have lost over the years. We have become jaded at times, we are too used to the stories of God’s activity and we can lose the sense of wonderment that goes along those stories and the knowledge that God saves us purely out of love. We can begin to forget to be amazed at God’s might acts and of how God uses us to bring about His will here on earth. We can forget that our abilities are given to us by God through the Holy Spirit and that we are not as powerful ourselves as we would like to believe.
Yet we are powerful, we are capable of great things, all because of God. We are given the opportunity to serve him, to lead lives that are of great benefit to all of God’s children and all of creation, because of the power that God dives us in the Spirit. Each of us, whether we be Lutheran, Nazarene, Catholic, or any other denomination, and even those who do not even know where their strength comes from, have been given the Spirit and we have been given a calling in our lives, a vocation that serves God and brings about God’s kingdom. Each of us is given an opportunity to do great things, and to look at what God has done in the world through us and say “God did it and I helped.” We have not all been given the same gifts, but we have all been given ones that fit our purpose. For some it is the gift of teaching, and for others it is the gift of service, to others prophecy, and to others other gifts. But each of us has been called and given that duty, as well as to follow Philip in proclaiming the coming of God’s son, the Messiah, the one whom the prophets wrote about and who has done marvelous things for us and for all of creation. We proclaim the Son of Man, who worked miracles in order to show the love of God. We proclaim he who died for our sake, who took upon himself the Sin of the world in order that we may have life.
We proclaim through both our words and our actions the life and the gift of Jesus Christ. Like Nathaniel, we are called to be free of deceit, in order that people may know the sacrifice and the compassion of God. Instead of trying to trick people, we are called to give aid to the suffering, to feed the hungry, and to clothe the naked. We do not serve a God who heaps upon his followers fame and fortune, but rather one who heaps upon them opportunities to do good for their neighbors, for all the children of God. Much like Philip and Nathaniel, we are witnesses to the actions of God, to the wondrous things that he does. It is God who gives us hope in the midst of darkness, when loved ones are lost and when life can seem completely hopeless. It is God who creates all things, who has given us the world that we live in. Afterall, what is more miraculous than the creation of life itself, to make a world and a universe out of sheer nothingness. Each day we are witnesses to God’s power, whenever we look upon the leaves on a tree or a hungry belly filled or a mournful person full of hope.And each day we are given the opportunity to take part in God’s power, in sharing our time with the lonely, in giving to those in need, in caring for God’s creation through careful use of resources and caring for plants and animals. Each and every day we are surrounded by the love and the glory of God.
So let us not take it all for granted and live our lives imaging that we are the ones who have the power and that we have a God who is distant and far off. Instead let us see that God is visible around us and that God cares for each and everyone one of us greatly. We don’t worship the God who set the whole world in motion then laid down for a nap, we worship the God who came down to us in the person of Jesus Christ, who lived out life with us, experienced all of our pains and sorrows, as well as our joys, and who seeks us out and calls us to Him and names us as our own. We have a God who knows us for who we are, who has known us from before we were even born, who knit us together in our mother’s wombs. There has never been a god in any mythology of the world that is as personal and at the same time so universal as the one true God whom we worship. Our God loves us with all of His heart, not because of who we are and what we have done, but because we are His children and He is our perfect parent. And Our God loves not only each of us, but each and every person and animal and blade of grass on this earth, because He has created each and every bit of this world and claims it all as its own. It is for this reason that he calls us, that we may be his hands in this world, that we may know the love that He has for us and that His love may be shown and shared with all that we meet on our pilgrimage of life.
Showing that love of God is also in working with one another to do the will of God. Desmond Tutu once said “Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.” Today we gather for worship together. You have invited me into your worship, to share a gathering as the body of Christ. While our theologies may differ and our practices of worship differ, this does not mean that we need to be separated. No, instead our differences are a calling to be in closer dialogue, to converse with each other and to experience each other’s worship and our practices, in order that we may see the Spirit active in each other’s lives and see God’s activity in ways that may help us to grow as Christians and to grow closer as the family of God. I pray that our time here together will lead to more times together, where we may learn from one another about our history and our life as Christians, and that we may be more closely unified as the Body of Christ, so that God’s will and work may be done here in Columbiana and throughout the world.
May we all stand alongside Philip and Nathaniel and proclaim that we have seen the Lord, he who has prophecied and He who is God Himself. Let us show the mercy, love, and compassion of our Creator to all people, so that He may be seen in all lives. May we worship and praise God with all of our hearts and with every action of our bodies and word from our lips. May God bless you and your ministry here and guide us all to do His work and will.
Amen.
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